Story by: Langley Austin ~ [email protected]

Greenville, SC(June 27, 2012) — Leading the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series (NWAAS) National Points Standings is a huge accomplishment, whether you’re leading it early on in the process or toward the end and for South Carolina native, Anthony Anders it’s helped fuel his season.

Anders is no stranger to success, he’s the reigning Anderson Motor Speedway track champion and he won a total of 15 races last season with 13 of them coming on the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series sanctioned, Greenville-Pickens Speedway. While Anders hasn’t been winning regularly this season he’s bolted to the top of the National Points Standings on the heels of 19 top five finishes in 31 starts in the series and he’s not planning to slow down anytime soon.

Anders got the lead in the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series standings by competing in more races than anyone else eligible as the NWAAS is made up of short tracks throughout the country and counts only a drivers best 18 races, with full car count races of 20 earning drivers the most points. Racing at Greenville Pickens Speedway in Greenville, SC, Kingsport Speedway in Kingsport, TN, Myrtle Beach Speedway in Myrtle Beach, SC and at Hickory Motor Speedway in Newton, NC, Anders has ran more races than anyone in the NWAAS with 31 starts. His next closest pursuer in number of starts is NASCAR Modified drivers, Ted Christopher and Keith Rocco, who have started 20 events so far this season.

CLICK HERE to view the Top 500 Standings for the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series
CLICK HERE to view the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series State Standings

Anders, who didn’t set out this season planning to run for the NWAAS National Points Title says his team has been having fun leading the standings.

“We just set out to try and win at several different tracks this season,” stated Anders in a phone interview on Wednesday evening. “My guys have just been having fun and we’ve been traveling a lot. From Kingsport, TN on Friday nights to Myrtle Beach, SC on Saturday nights, we’ve been on the road from track to track.”

Anders’ team has spent many Friday nights racing on the tight confines of Kingsport Speedway’s 3/8 mile concrete paper clip only to turn around on Saturday and haul all the way to the South Carolina coast, which is more than a 380 mile trip one way. By the time his team leaves their shop on Friday morning, races Kingsport, loads up and heads to Myrtle Beach and comes back home they’ve traveled more than 775 miles. And, Anders team has done that on more than one occasion already this season.

Anders, who has led the NWAAS National Points Standings since the points were first released on May 15th and even when the first list was released, he had already competed in more than the eligible 18 races, with 20 starts. Having led the NWAAS National Points standings the last eight weeks has given Anders and his team something to race for and even though he knows he could lose the points lead before next weeks standings are released, he’s still digging and trying to win it.

“We just wanted to have fun this season,” continued Anders. “Leading the National points kinda give us something to have fun with even though we weren’t winning any races. Now that we’ve got two wins under our belt, we hope we can get a few more and get some full points wins.”

Anders had hoped that the second year NASCAR sanctioned, Kingsport Speedway would be a place that he could go and get some wins, but it’s turned out to be a place that he hasn’t got a grip on yet.

“We just haven’t done that well at Kingsport. We thought that would be a place where we could go and win some races at, but we just haven’t been in the mix up front all season. If we could find what we need up there and get a victory or two, with the fields they’ve been having we could gain a lot of points.”

Anders knows that right now, he’s got to get to winning some races in order to keep himself among the top five in points despite the fact that he’s got 18 top five finishes counting toward his points total.

“We got 18 top fives counting right now, but these guys who are winning races get those five bonus points,” continued Anders. “Those bonus points mean a lot and they’re going to kill us if we can’t get some full field wins soon. We’re working hard at it and Myrtle Beach and we’ve led some laps down there, but just can’t close the deal.”

Anders, who is planning to compete in all the races this season at Myrtle Beach Speedway is hoping that he can finish strong with some wins and see where the points shake out.

“To be leading this long was surprising, we kinda jumped out there and got a lot of races under our belt so quickly and we’ve held the lead for a while now. It might be our last week leading, but to lead this long has been a booster to our team. We’ve got 20 races left this season and we’ll see what happens, but these guys have worked hard and we could win some races and I expect to win some before September.”

Anders still plans to just have fun with his team, but admits that winning the NWAAS National Title would be huge for his team.

“Only thing we can do now is keep doing what we’re doing,” said Anders. “We just race to have fun, but it sure would be a lot more fun if we can win this thing. Myrtle Beach has been good, we just haven’t won yet, but I think we can soon.”

Though Anders hasn’t been talked about for the NWAAS title like Lee Pulliam, CE Falk III or Nate Monteith, he’s proven that if you’re willing to travel and venture away from your home track, you can certainly put yourself in the mix.

“We got to where we could win at Greenville, but there’s just no car count there and we wanted to travel as much as possible anyways. We knew that if we could be competitive at a bunch of different tracks that we could have a chance at this thing and now here we are we’ve led it for seven or eight weeks. We’re just going to keep doing what we’re doing.”

Anders ride atop the NWAAS standings could be over after this week, but the veteran driver won’t slow down any with scheduled stops at Kingsport Speedway the next two Friday nights as well as back to back races at Myrtle Beach Speedway on Tuesday, July 3rd and Saturday July 7th. For Anders it’s time to see if he can get some wins and keep himself in contention for the championship.